The Geopolitical tensions between the United States and North Korea are likely to escalate as the student who was returned by North Korea in a coma died in the hospital. Otto Warmbier, an American student who was detained in North Korea for 17 months, has died one week after he was released and returned in a coma. North Korea agreed to his release after a secret meeting between US diplomats and North Korean officials in Oslo and a later meeting with North Korean diplomats at the UN in New York. Warmbier was detained during a trip to North Korea in January 2016. After a trial two months later that US experts derided as a sham, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly stealing a poster.

The US President Donald Trump, who made the return of the student a priority of his administration talked to the family last week after his release, offered his deepest condolences over the death. In a statement, he said, “Otto’s fate deepens my administration’s determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency……………..The United States once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim.”

The tragedy comes just two days before the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and defense secretary James Mattis are due to host senior Chinese officials of diplomatic and security talks. The Trump administration has been urging China to put more pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.